And a New Day Dawns

Happy to say that today I only feel like I went a few rounds with Mike Tyson rather than the way I felt yesterday, which was more of a 'put me in traction' feeling. My back muscles spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening spasming - a less than pleasant experience. One I hope not to repeat for quite a while. As a comparison - doing a body slam into the Tesco petrol station cement surface hurts a lot more than crashing a Ford Galaxy into a tree and writing off the car.

So, feeling much more mobile today, I went outside with my latest completed project and took a couple of photos. I love, love, love this little blanket - not because I am such a genius at crocheting or anything - just because of the colours and how they went together as well as I hoped.



I like the contrasts of the occasional square with the turquoise blue against the sky blue, and the odd squares where I didn't use the white as the middle colour. It just keeps the blanket from being too uniform, too boring. The border isn't too wide and the edging just has a touch of ripple to it.

As I get back into crocheting after years of not even thinking about it I find myself enjoying the process of creating more and more pleasurable, and you can't ask for much more than that from doing crafts.

The sun continues to bless us with its presence and now, joining the bouncy lambs, are huge swathes of dancing daffodils - not just the odd one here and there like I captured before. The girls are spending more and more time outdoors, laughing, being silly and revelling in the freedom of good weather.

I suppose that I should plant some seeds for tomatoes soon, to start growing on the kitchen windowsill. And I will have to see which of my herbs succumbed to the rather harsh winter (for England) we had this year. I have a feeling that the Moroccan mint looks terminal - and people told me it was impossible to kill mint. Ha! Just give me one. The thyme is fine. The oregano, chives and sage I expect to come to life in the next couple of months. The baby bay tree in the terracotta pot may not be so lucky.

The girls have some seed potatoes from school so I suppose we will have to clear a corner for those to be planted. It has been several years since we grew our own potatoes. I couldn't believe how much better a potato fresh out the ground (then washed and cooked of course) tasted than one from the supermarket. I know it is silly but I understood that your corn on the cobs, and green beans, etc. always tasted better but to me a potato was a potato and it surprised me that one could taste so much better than another.

I like gardening in the springtime. I feel full of hope and good will to all plants. I haven't reached that mid-summer 'Do I have to water all those plants again?' stage. I am not a natural, born to the soil gardening type person. Don't get me wrong - I love flowers, vegetable gardens and all that good stuff but I would like them to get on with it with minimum interference from me.

Susan